Work with Control Center
Learn about the shortcuts that are only ever a swipe (or three) away
REQUIRES
iOS 10
you will learn
How to use iOS 10’s new-look Control Center to its fullest
IT WILL TAKE
10 minutes
Control Center saves you the trouble of digging around for often-used settings, opening an app that’s playing audio to control its playback, or searching for a flashlight. Whether you’re at the Home screen, in an app, or you’ve just woken your device to its Lock screen, you can do all these things and more.
To open Control Center, swipe upwards from the screen’s bottom edge. This slides a card over the bottom of the screen and dims the rest of the display. Swiping up while using an app might not reveal Control Center; look for a small tab with an arrow on it at the center of the screen’s bottom edge; the point of this is to stop you accidentally pulling Control Center over an app just by interacting with its controls near that point. Tap elsewhere on the screen to dismiss the tab and carry on, or swipe upwards from it to pull Control Center in to view.
The top row of Control Center contains buttons that toggle Airplane Mode (which disables Wi-Fi and Bluetooth), enable or disable Wi-Fi or Bluetooth on their own, toggle Do Not Disturb to avoid calls and notifications interrupting you, and lock the screen orientation (portrait only on iPhone or iPod touch, but also landscape on iPad). Below these is a slider that controls screen brightness.
Next down are buttons to mirror your iOS device’s screen to an Apple TV and control whether Macs and other iOS devices can see your device and send things to you – such as links, contact details, photos – over a direct Wi-Fi connection between devices.
The Night Shift button toggles that feature and shows when it’ll next turn on or off. Set up Night Shift in Settings > Display & Brightness.
The bottom row contains buttons for a flashlight, Clock, Calculator, or Camera app. On a device with 3D Touch, press firmly on them for extra options, such as flashlight intensities, preset timer durations, and camera modes.
Note the page dots that are shown below the card, which are new in iOS 10 – Control Center is now divided into different “cards.”